
MI tax deduction should be made permanent
Since 2007, homeowners have been able to deduct from their federal income taxes mortgage insurance premiums paid to private MI companies and government agencies, including the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Housing Service (RHS). From 2012-2016 more than 4 million homeowners annually claimed the MI premium tax deduction, and in recent years millions of homeowners continued to benefit from this tax provision. This important tax policy supports low- and moderate-income homeowners. In 2020, qualifying middle-class homeowners received an average deduction of more than $2,100, according to IRS data.
Tax deduction for MI premiums has been extended several times
Most recently in December 2020 as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021, which covered tax filings for 2020 and 2021. USMI is once again calling on Congress to support existing homeowners and prospective homebuyers by extending the deduction and making it permanent. While this deduction has benefited millions of homeowners since 2007, its effectiveness is diminished by:
- Its temporary nature
- Its adjusted gross income (AGI) phaseout
The ability of borrowers to deduct MI premiums from federal income taxes should be made permanent because MI premiums are the economic equivalent of mortgage interest payments, and so should remain deductible and at parity with mortgage interest payments. Further, the existing AGI phaseout should be increased or eliminated since the mortgage insurance premium deduction is the only itemized deduction subject to such a cap and the phaseout has never been adjusted.
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Additional Resources
- Letter: Joint Trades Letter to Senate Finance Committee in Support of MI Tax Deduction
- Letter: Joint Trades Letter to House Ways and Means Committee in Support of MI Tax Deduction
- Letter: Statement to House Committee on Ways and Means’ Hearing, “Nowhere to Live: Profits, Disinvestment, and the American Housing Crisis”
- Letter: Statement to Senate Finance Committee Hearing, “The Role of Tax Incentives in Affordable Housing”
- Letter: USMI Calls for Senate Finance Committee to Co-Sponsor the Middle Class Mortgage Insurance Premium Act of 2022
- Major Housing Industry Trades and Homeownership Advocates Letter on Tax Treatment of MI Premiums
- USMI Letter to the Joint Committee on Taxation